Thrilling space battles and lightsaber duels aside, fanboys and girls love that brief exchange in the first Star Wars movie when Obi-Wan Kenobi talked to Luke about his father Anakin Skywalker, and how they fought together in many a battle during the Clone Wars. Though barely a minute's worth of dialogue, it was just enough to spark the imagination: You mean there's history to this story? What was Luke's father really like? And what in the world is a 'Clone War'?

Fans wanted to know and it helped pave the way for the three prequels that dealt with that period of Star Wars lore. Except creator/director George Lucas made one crucial mistake (among many)—he cheated fans out of the epic battles they were hoping to see. Attack of the Clones ends with the start of the Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith wraps it up about midway through. We see very little of the full-scale intergalactic war between droids and troopers in which Anakin distinguishes himself as a Jedi hero to the Republic.

Practically speaking, such a production would be tough to film. It took years before Lucas felt technology was ready to show large-scale battles through computer animation. So it only stands to reason that animation would also be used to tell the rest of the story in between Episodes II and III. Thus animator Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack) was commissioned to depict some of the Clone Wars through a micro-series of animated shorts. The overall response was very enthusiastic, due to the slick and stylish animation which, like Samurai Jack, told much of its story with minimal dialogue. I highly recommend it to Star Wars fans.